Transatlantic Circulation and Transformation of Ideas: The Impact of the Enlightenment in Contemporary Franco-Caribbean Literatures
African, American and Oceania Studies
General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
History of Philosophy
History of Science
Final Report Abstract
How important are the ideas of the Enlightenment still today? The research project addressed this question. The hypothesis that in current Franco-Caribbean literatures, despite the obvious rejection of European thought patterns, the Enlightenment paradigm with its ideas and cultural values is still present, although translated and transformed in many different ways, could be confirmed. Enlightenment is here not understood as a closed epoch, but as an open and normative-ethical ensemble of concepts creating productive ambivalences in the non-European postcolonial reception and significantly contribute to the constitution of Franco-Caribbean societies and literatures. In three qualification monographies (two dissertations and a second book by the postdoc) and a joint research publication, the multi-layered references to the Enlightenment were examined on the basis of a broad corpus of Franco-Caribbean literature. It has been shown that these literatures tie in with the Enlightenment discourse in different ways and thus present alternative designs for conviviality (sub-project I, Halle), design new poetics of the human body (sub-project II, Halle) and present innovative ecological ways of dealing with nature (Subproject III, Bremen). Of course, the Caribbean experience with their complex mixture of colonization, delocalization, slavery, plantation economy and creolization influence the transformation of these ideas in a special way; however, such postcolonial transformations of Enlightenment thought can also be found in other spaces affected by colonialism. The research results therefore have a paradigmatic character. It could be shown that anthropological-philosophical key concepts are received as well as epistemes and axioms, concrete texts, narrative patterns, discourse formats, metaphors and motif chains. The study of texts from the corpus has shown that concepts, discourse elements and motifs are not simply adopted, but undergo transformations and translations in a variety of ways, both in affirmative and in critical form. The historically evolved reception paths became visible by concrete case studies on actors (settlers, scientists, writers), networks (academies, circles, clubs) and media (letters, plays, travel stories). The assumption that the transfer of knowledge and ideas takes place in the form of a transatlantic circulation movement between France and the Caribbean has also been confirmed. Theoretical reflections from Caribbean thinkers on concepts of transfer underline this. The case studies have shown that the Enlightenment ideas circulated through political debates, scientific exchange, expeditions and travels, institutions, family connections, readings, i.e. via various relay stations, in a multi-directional polyphonic transatlantic discourse space, in which they continue to work today.
Publications
- Artikel „Kolonialgeschichte und ihre Folgen im Überblick. 72 Frankreich“, in: Dirk Göttsche / Axel Dunker / Gabriele Dürbeck (eds.): Handbuch Postkolonialismus und Literatur. Stuttgart: Metzler 2017, 403-406
Febel, Gisela
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-05386-2_72) - Artikel „Theorie. Rezeption und Ausfaltung. 9. Romanistik, 9.1 Französische Romanistik, 9.2 Hispanistik und Lateinamerikanistik, 9.4 Italianistik“, in: Dirk Göttsche / Axel Dunker / Gabriele Dürbeck (eds.): Handbuch Postkolonialismus und Literatur. Stuttgart: Metzler 2017, 64-74
Febel, Gisela
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-05386-2_9) - Mémoires transmédiales. Geschichte und Gedächtnis in der Karibik und ihrer Diaspora. Berlin: Frank und Timme 2017
Febel, Gisela / Ueckmann, Natascha (eds.)
- Pluraler Humanismus. Négritude und Negrismo weiter gedacht, Heidelberg: Springer VS 2017
Febel, Gisela / Ueckmann, Natascha (eds.)
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-20079-4) - „Entretien“, in Atelier de traduction, Dossier Écologie et traduction (33-34) 2020
Mäder, Marie-Therese
- „Der Spuk der Sklaverei und kein Ende - Von Engeln und Dämonen im Gedächtnis der aktuellen karibischen Narrativik von Frauen“, XXXVII. Romanistentag, Augsburg, 4.-7. Oktober 2021, Sektion: Achsen und Spektren der Migration in romanischen Literaturen und Bildmedien des 21. Jahrhunderts
Febel, Gisela
- „Realismus, Groteske, Ethik des Überlebens in der aktuellen haitianischen gesellschaftskritischen Literatur am Beispiel von Kettly Pierre Mars“, in: Julia Brühne / Christiane Conrad von Heydendorff / Cora Rock (éds.): Re-Konstruktionen des Realen. Die Wiederentdeckung des Realismus in der Romania, Brill: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2021, 151-178
Febel, Gisela
(See online at https://doi.org/10.14220/9783737013529.151) - Les Lumières dans les Caraïbes françaises: circulations transatlantiques, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2022
Febel, Gisela / Ludwig, Ralph / Ueckmann, Natascha (eds.)
- Nature, environnement et écocritique dans les littératures et cultures francophones, Tübingen, Narr, Francke, Attempto, 2022
Febel, Gisela / Mäder, Marie-Therese (éd.)
- „How to Shape Black Diasporic Identity in France by Reading (About) Literature“, in: Julia Borst / Linda Maeding / Shola Adenekan (eds.): special issue on Diaspora and (post-)digitality: imagined communities in cyberspace, 2022
Febel, Gisela
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1386/gdm_00024_1)
